Rant...

Ok... this has been happening a lot lately... and quite frankly... it irritates the absolute shit out of me.

When someone is talking everyone listening should keep their effing mouth shut until the person speaking is finished speaking.

Before I expound on this any further, let me give a little background to help explain why I'm so annoyed by this.

As I've said before the porch has been a place of many great times, great conversations, great drinks, great tobacco, etc...

All of my friends would sit on the porch and we'd enjoy each other's company.

We'd all laugh, tell stories, even debate on occasion...

A great example of the type of people I'm talking about is my friend, Mike.

Mike is a well of great stories. He's a great listener. And he understands that when someone is speaking you should respect them enough to listen to what they have to say.

So... now that I've given a bit of background I will continue on with what's irritating me.

A lot (not all... thankfully) of friends have moved away from College Station. These friends, like Mike, knew not to interrupt someone in the middle of telling a story. All (well... most) comments were kept quiet until the person finished with the story... or spoken at an appropriate time. (ie. asking a question about the story to help better understand what's going on)

Lately, however, I'll be in the middle of saying something... and someone will jump in and start talking about something entirely different from what I'm talking about. They will continue to talk... then they'll bring up something that will get someone else to start talking... then someone else... and it goes on and on and on until I feel as if I should not even try to finish saying what ever it was that I was saying.

Furthermore... how can these people (the ones who continuously interrupt) expect others to want to be in their company? Why would I want to talk to someone who isn't even listening to what I have to say?

Granted, they may actually be listening... but continuous interruptions gives the appearance of two things:
1) What's being said isn't important enough to listen to
2) What's being said is not interesting in the least bit and they'd just prefer you to shut up so they can talk.

Both of these things are extremely rude.

Seriously... it's not hard at all to keep your damn mouth shut while someone speaks.

Another thing that's been driving me crazy is that it seems a lot of people don't know how to relax and be laid back.

I understand that I am extremely laid back... so... I'm not expecting everyone to be as laid back as I am... and I understand that not everyone is a laid back type of person.

Wait... I should clarify this statement before continuing.

When hanging out with people... I do not want to discuss politics... I do not want a history lesson on things I could learn in a class room or by reading a history book... I do not want to discuss other non-interesting topics. All I want to do is sit back, relax, talk about completely random things... and by doing these things I am more capable of learning about the person I'm talking to/hanging out with.

Ok... there are exceptions to what I just said. It is ok to talk about politics, history, and other things... so long as it pertains to the discussion at hand.
For instance, if we were talking about something that a brief history lesson would improve the topic, then yes... give a history lesson. But a complete hour-long random history lesson explaining why Texas and Ney York are quite different is... well... not interesting. Randomly bringing up stuff like this and talking on and on and on about it completely destroys the laid back environment and makes me want to take my beer and just go upstairs to my room to get away from the (now) boring experience.

Heated debates on various topics also destroy the laid back environment. I don't want to have someone yelling at me simply because we disagree on why dirt is brown. (ok.. so i've never been in or listened to a heated debate on why dirt is brown. But I have participated in and listened to a few that are almost as stupid as arguing about the color of dirt)

Life is already hard enough as it is... there's no need to make it more difficult by being so wound-up and uptight about everything.

R.E.L.A.X.

So yes, I understand that not everyone is laid back... but that's not really necessary to follow what I've laid out above.

Anyways... I could probably go on and on about this for another hour or so... but I'll spare you all (and my fingertips).

I just wish there were more people here who know how to relax, have a good time, and enjoy each other's company.